Bahrain: Residents cry foul over pipe burst

Residents of Manama, are complaining of an unbearable smell due to a burst sewerage water pipe for the last three days. 

They say the area is so full of the foul-smelling water that many of residents have no choice but to plod across it to reach their homes or even enter shops. 

One resident claimed several complaints to the authorities had gone unanswered.

“When we complain to the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA), they tell us to go to the Works Ministry, and when we go there, they say go to the EWA,” said Saji Abraham. 

“Some people have come and had a look and told us they will fix the leak, but nothing seems to be happening.”

A Works Ministry official said they were aware of the problem and were trying to fix it as soon as possible. “We will have it fixed possibly in the next two days,” he said.

Source: Gulf Daily news, 11 January 2011

4 million Euros for Gaza Wastewater Treatment Plant

A financial agreement for an amount of 4 million Euros was signed on the 17^th of October by Ministry of Planning, Mr Dov Zerah, CEO of the French Development Agency (AFD), Dr Ali Jarbawi, Minister of Planning and Administration Development (MOPAD) and Mr Frederic Desagneaux, French Consul General in Jerusalem. The agreement concerns the construction of a regional wastewater treatment plant in North Gaza.

The current plant operates at over four times its nominal capacity. In 2005, AFD, the World Bank, Belgian and Swedish Development & Cooperation and the European Union mobilized USD 46 million for the implementation of a two-phase project. The first phase provided for the construction of a pumping station in Beit Lahia and the implementation of infiltration basin to transfer the sewage to the new site at East of Jabalia to avoid any new flooding of the surrounding areas of Beit Lahia.

The second phase of the project aims to build a biological treatment plant in Jabalia with a capacity of 35,600 m3/day and is expected to meet all the needs of the North Gaza by 2015.

To recover and reuse the treated wastewater an agricultural system will also be set up. With this 4 million Euros grant, additional to the 12 million Euros provided in 2005, AFD will be the main contributor of the second phase.

Source: Aljazeera.com , 19/10/2010

IRAQ: leaking sewage affects Fallujah residents’ health

Image via Wikipedia

The sewage system in Fallujah, a city about 60 km west of Baghad, is still not working. Fallujah’s residents depend on underground septic tanks that are leaking waste onto their streets from where it eventually goes to the Euphrates, a main source of drink water for Fallujah as well as for other downstream cities.

 As a result many people have been affected by diarrhoea, tuberculosis, typhoid and other communicable diseases, affirmed Abdul-Sattar Kadhum al-Nawaf, director of the Fallujah general hospital. He said, “I not have specific numbers, but 10-15 percent of patients at the hospital had water or sewage-related diseases”.

After the invasion to IRAK the US started to build a sewage treatment plant that now after withdraw of the American forces will be handed over to a local contractor. The US has promised to provide the necessary funding for its completion but the fact is that since 2004 until 2010  not a single house is connected to the system, according to IRIN.

Sheikh Hameed al-Alwan, head of Fallujah local council said that even if the handing over were successful “unfortunately the plant will work only partially as its backbone, which is the main pipeline that sends all the waste to the main processing unit, will not be constructed because of the lack of funds.”

Other experts affirm that the Fallujah plant is only one of many others abandoned around the country.

related news: U.S. Army Engineers Bring Sewage System to Fallujah, Iraq, American.gov, 13 August 2009.

Source: IRIN, 14 July 2010

Morocco’s drinking water facility invested over $ 422 mln in 2009

Morocco’s drinking water facility (ONEP) had invested in 2009 over 422 million dollars (3.7 billion dirhams), bringing its coverage rate to 89% in the rural area.

The program of generalizing access to drinking water in the rural area succeeded in 2009 in supplying an additional population of 246,000 inhabitants, besides 120,000 people in 24 centers, according to figures released, Friday (9.7.2010) in Rabat, by ONEP’s board of directors. 

As for the urban area, the 2009 newly-implemented projects required building 6 treatment plants, including a desalination plant and two demineralization plants. This enabled reaching an additional rate of flow of 1,706 l/s.

The state-owned facility carried out 240 km of supply mains, built 23 new water tanks with a capacity of 14,200 m3 and extended the supply network by 400 km. It had also operated a 308 km-wastewater collection system and three wastewater plants treating 11,026 m3 per day. 
  
Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra, who was presiding over the board of directors’ meeting, lauded ONEP’s 2009 achievements.  

Related site: ONEP

Source: Agence Maghred Arabe Presse, 9 July 2010.

Tunisia – Northern Tunis Wastewater Project

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today 17.6.2010 approved the Northern Tunis Wastewater Project  for US$8.03 million project to reduce the environmental impact of treated wastewater discharge into the Gulf of Tunis by building a submarine outfall. The project will also increase the quantity and quality of treated wastewater to encourage its reuse in agriculture.

There are three components to the project, the first component being transfer of Treated Wastewater (TWW) to increase its reuse in agriculture. This component will focus on the investments necessary to transfer the TWW from its existing discharge point close to the El Kehlij agriculture drainage canal up to a storage basin, from which it will be made available for reuse in agriculture. 

The Global Environmental Facility (GEF) grant will finance a portion of the investments under this component. The second component is the improvement of the discharge of the remaining TWW in the Mediterranean Sea. This component aims at developing the infrastructure necessary to improve the discharge of the remaining TWW in the Mediterranean Sea. Activities under this component include: TWW transfer; submarine outfall; and studies.

Finally, the third component is the monitoring and capacity strengthening. This component will fund important accompanying measures for the implementation of the project, including consulting services to strengthen: (i) water quality monitoring systems in the project area; and (ii) coordination mechanisms among agencies involved in wastewater reuse, in particular Tunisian National Sanitation Utility (ONAS) and Ministry of Agriculture, Hydraulic Resources and Fisheries (MARHP).

Contact: Hafed Al-Ghwell  (halghwell@worldbank.org)

Tel: (202) 473-8930

 More information:  

Source: World Bank Projects & Operations, Jun 2010

Morocco sanitation receives World Bank support

Morocco will receive $175 million from the World Bank to increase access to potable water supply in the Nador, Driouch, Safi, Youssoufia, Sidi Bennour and Errachidia provinces reported Working With Water on June 16th 2010. According to the World Bank, the project also aims to reduce water-borne disease infection in children. Another $43 million was allocated for wastewater treatment in the Oum Er Rbia basin.

Related news: Magharebia, 28 Jan 2010
Source: Morocco sanitation receives World Bank support, Magharebia , 17 Jun 2010.

Construction of Qom wastewater North Main trunk & transmission pipeline

The Qom Water and wastewater company has received financing from the Islamic development bank toward the cost of Qom Wastewater Project and aim to apply part of the proceeds of this financing to payments under the Contract for the Construction of Qom Wastewater network in two lots: contractors for the Construction of Qom Wastewater North Main Trunk (Lot 1) and Construction of Qom Wastewater Transmission Pipeline (Lot 2).

Prequalification will be conducted through prequalification procedures specified in the Islamic Development bank Guidelines for Procurement under lDB financing (November 2006). Which can also be found at the IDB website: 
and is open to all bidders from eligible source countries. as defined in the guidelines.

Source: Qom Water and Wastewater Company, 4 june 2010
Phone: +98 251 285 3996 Fax: +98 251 285 3997
Company: Iranab Consulting Engineering

Phone: +9821 22633047-56 Fax: +9821 22602780
Email: info@iranab-eng.com

Egypt: Irrigation Innovations in the Nile Delta

Egypt depends almost exclusively on the Nile River for its water supply. Of this, 85 percent is used for irrigation. As with the rest of the world, the country’s water demands are ever growing. For Egypt, the solution lies in making better use of the Nile’s existing flows. To do so, the most viable solution is to make the current irrigation system more efficient––while being responsive to farmers’ needs.

In order to address the country’s growing water demands, Egypt has adopted innovate approaches to make better use of the Nile’s existing flows.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI), the World Bank, the German aid agency, KfW, and the government of the Netherlands developed the Integrated Irrigation Infrastructure Management Project (IIIMP). The strength of the new approach is that its engineering and institutional innovations complement and reinforce each other. Involving farmer groupings in the management of the new pumping and water control systems means that water gets to the right field at the right time, thus boosting crop yields and farmers’ incomes.

Source: The World Bank, 8 May 2010

HM The King Enquires about Oujda Liquid Sanitation Program

 HM King Mohammed VI asks about the progress of the Oujda liquid sanitation priority program, with a cost of 550 million dirhams (about $ 63 million), and inaugurated a rainwater drainage system to protect the southern sector of the city against floods.

This ambitious program provides for equipping with sanitation facilities outlying and under-equipped neighborhoods as well as upgrading and expanding the sanitation network through the setting up of two wastewater pumping stations and renewal of two collectors.

The program includes the implementation of the first phase of the construction works to protect the southern sector of the city against floods, worth 178 millions dirhams. During the first phase a rainwater drainage system, strengthening the main collector will be built together with eight storm water detention pond.

Source: Agence Maghreb Arabe Presse, 11 May 2010

Israel is threatening to shut down water supply to the Palestinians

A short but worrying news article in the Jerusalem Post prompts me to post something on the groundwater contamination situation in the Occupied Westbank. The JP stated that “National Infrastructures Minister Uzi Landau said Wednesday that Israel should consider ceasing water flow to the Palestinians if they do not stop contaminating the water with sewage”.

In this valley, the towering Israel settlement of Ariel dominates the valley. In the middle lies the Palestinian town of Salfit and below is the domain of some Bedouin families and farmers. These families live literally next to open sewage. Untreated waste water from both the Israeli settlements and Salfit contaminate the valley of Salfit. One man told us how he has to cope with expensive water tankers for supply, living next to a black river created by sewage from both Salfit and Ariel.

Israel completely control the water supply and sewage management in this area. Photographer Skip Schiel has written about the area back in 2007. A proposal to build a sewage treatment plant funded by the Germans has been blocked by Israelis time and again. The result ? No treatment of any sewage water entering the valley. As quoted by Skip, according to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem, 80 factories from Ariel’s Burkan industrial zone discharge 0.81 million cubic meters of wastewater per year into nearby valleys. Israel has long prevented the building of proper sewage treatment plants in the Occupied Territories. For Landau now to accuse the Palestinians of contaminating the groundwater whilst Israel prevents and even destroys the building of sewage treatment plants in the oPt consistently, not seeing his own responsibility to the environment but threatening with ceasing water supply to Palestinians instead is simply cruel, uncompassionate and inhumane.

Source: Israel is threatening to shut down water supply to the Palestinians, From the Source Blog, 13 April 2010